Maybe We're Not So Different
by ForeverAnimagus
Summary: Nico is travelling with Reyna and realises that maybe, finally, he found somebody that understands him. HoH SPOILER WARNING.


**Some stuff from a few days ago which I forgot to put on here. All rights are the head troll's.**

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Nico sighed. It was getting late, and they barely got anywhere today, with that stop over to eat something, and that little encounter with emphousas, and he was tired as hades. He can't get any more distance covered today, he knew, but it still annoyed him, especially when he was keeping her back from her target, and she deserved to get to the Greek camp on time to stop this war. She deserved to get her credit, have some peace, drop out of the army and relax a bit. possibly live in New Rome. Maybe in some new demigod utopia, if they manage that. Nico doubted they will.

Reyna was kind to him, and he appreciated him. She was kind to him like she never was before; he remembered the strange glares she used to grant him with when he walked past. These were all gone now, though, and they were friends, even good friends, after only several days of travelling. She saw him in a different light now, he knew, and he saw her under a different light too, in the shoes not of a fair leader but of a reasonable but exasperated girl. He did not know what fuelled her re-imaging of him, but he was glad for it nonetheless. She was a good friend to have in the present and future, and she understood. She understood what it was like not to be accepted, to be alienated and unfairly judged. She knew it from experience, she did not pretend to know it from some old films she watched, yet she made herself respected, and he respected her, if only for that. He respected her for putting her past behind her and her goal ahead of her and following what is best for her future. He admired the choices both her and her sister made, of their fights, their losses and their victories. He admired them for their stamina and their invulnerability.

When she told him her story, in a stop some days before, he did not believe her. It sounded completely fictional. When somebody says that they worked for an evil witch whose pirate guinea pigs escaped and kidnapped them and their sister, just for the two to escape and the older sister to become queen of the Amazons, you tend to be quick to call bullshit. And then Reyna slaps you, and finds the nearest Amazon stockroom to introduce you to Hylla, who can finally stop fighting the other, older queen every day because the doors of death are finally closed and is finally getting some time to relax and reconsider some of her crew members, or so she called them. Nico didn't ask. Hylla didn't prompt him to.

They've been in a lot of places now on their trip. He tends to be tired after each journey, so they stop at a hotel, Reyna uses the mist to avoid paying any money, and they open their map and find the next stop. The Athena Parthenos they leave covered, chained and protected by Reina's dogs who somehow found them in Italy, and that did not stop barking whenever he said that he felt good enough to keep going, those bastards. Luckily, Reyna ignored them, because they had no time and she had to make peace between two groups that were never in peace before, before a war begins between completely the wrong sides and prevents any chance of avoiding annihilation. Sometimes he pitied her. She had a tough role on her shoulders.

So now, he was sitting here, sighing, because Reyna was in the hotel shower, the dogs were outside the small town they were in in some forest, and he could finally stop pretending he will survive this trip to its end, still going this pace. He wouldn't. He was tired and hungry and probably really required a shower too, which was the one luxury he will have at the moment Reyna's finished. His every muscle ached from shadow travelling and from fighting monsters wherever they went to, and he could not stop worrying over the current gossip matter on the Argo II, which he guessed was him, because he still didn't completely trust that Jason character and was almost certain that really, all he wanted from him was the fun of laughing at somebody behind their back. Same with all of those other Argo people. Same with just about everybody he met so far, except for Reyna, because they were friends and she really understood him and he understood her and that's just the way it was.

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**Written for the 750 Words challenge. Last thing you'll see from me until December, probably.**

**Just a note: Don't be hard on any writer on this site during November for not posting! Many, many people here are participating in NaNoWriMo. It's an absolutely time-consuming challenge which also uses up any writing motivation you can get, and people will feel pretty bad about their writing during its course. Wait until December to ask them for more if you see they're participating and not posting during November, okay? They don't need the extra pressure.**


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